Working with an Offshore Design Studio: What to Expect

Working with an Offshore Design Studio: What to Expect
Expect four things from an offshore design studio in Asia: a short paid test before the full project, scheduled meeting windows, written agreements on who owns the files, and international bank transfers that usually take 1 to 6 working days. At Hatypo, based in Surakarta (UTC+7), the design test takes 1 to 3 working days and project meetings run 9am to 5pm Indonesia time.
This article draws on Harvard Business School's reporting on time zone research, Indonesia's Copyright Law No. 28 of 2014 as published by WIPO, Wise's guidance on international transfers, and law-firm summaries of Indonesia's Personal Data Protection Law. The design test and meeting windows describe how Hatypo works today.
I'm Uno, an account executive at Hatypo Studio. I handle scope and budget conversations with new clients, so I hear buyers' concerns about working across borders on first calls. Hatypo is based in Surakarta, Indonesia, serves international clients, and has delivered 250+ projects with various scopes.

Why do buyers hesitate to hire a design studio in Asia?
Buyers usually worry about the same things: whether the studio's quality matches its portfolio, whether communication will hold up across time zones, who owns the work, and how money moves. Those are fair concerns, and each one has a practical answer.
Research on offshore engineering design points the same way. Three US projects that outsourced part of their design work offshore found that clients worried about trust and knowledge sharing, while vendors worried about quality control, communication and schedule control.
Design and engineering are different fields, and the same pattern applies: trust builds when you see real work and talk to the people doing it. A design test gives you both.
How does the Hatypo design test work?
The design test is a paid, short engagement that comes before the full project. It takes 1 to 3 working days and applies to every project type we take: mobile app, web app, website and dashboard.
You give us a brief and we design against it. At the end, you have seen our output and our communication on your own problem, with your own brief as the standard.
What does the test show you?
- Our performance. How we work through your brief inside a 1 to 3 working day window.
- Our communication. How we ask questions, report progress and respond to feedback.
- The result against your brief. Whether the design answers what you asked for.
How should you prepare a test brief?
Choose a brief that matches a real problem in your product, so the result is easy to judge against what you expected. Name one person who gives feedback during the 3 to 5 days, so communication is measured on clear answers.
How do time zones change the way we work together?
Harvard Business School research on more than 12,000 employees at one multinational found that each extra hour of time difference cut real-time communication, such as calls and video chats, by 11 percent on average. Email and chat volume stayed the same.
Plan for it: with fewer live calls, written updates and clear feedback carry more of the work. For east-west teams, the researchers advise getting better at asynchronous communication and setting the expectation that answers won't be instant.


How do time zones change the way we work together?
Harvard Business School research on more than 12,000 employees at one multinational found that each extra hour of time difference cut real-time communication, such as calls and video chats, by 11 percent on average. Email and chat volume stayed the same.
Plan for it: with fewer live calls, written updates and clear feedback carry more of the work. For east-west teams, the researchers advise getting better at asynchronous communication and setting the expectation that answers won't be instant.
When can you meet the Hatypo team?
Meetings about a running project happen between 9am and 5pm Indonesia time (WIB, UTC+7). Deal meetings, such as the first call and scope discussions, can happen between 8am and 10pm WIB.
How much of your workday overlaps with ours?
This table counts the hours that fall inside 9am to 5pm local time for the client, based on UTC offsets and the time differences listed by time.is. Ranges cover daylight saving changes, which Indonesia doesn't observe.
For project calls, US clients meet us in their evening. A 9am WIB call on Wednesday is 9pm Tuesday in New York and 6pm Tuesday in Los Angeles, on standard time. Deal meetings reach the New York morning and the Los Angeles evening.
Who owns the design files when an Indonesian studio does the work?
Under Indonesia's Copyright Law, the party that produces a commissioned work is the author and copyright holder unless the parties agree otherwise (Article 36). In practice, the contract is where ownership gets decided.
Copyright can be transferred in whole or in part by several routes, including a written agreement (Article 16). The law's elucidation adds that only economic rights transfer, and that the transfer must be made clearly and in writing.
Moral rights, such as the right to decide whether the author's name appears or to object to distortion of the work, stay with the author while the author is alive (Article 5). Ask the studio how credit and later changes to the work are handled.
Indonesia ratified the Berne Convention through Presidential Decree No. 18 of 1997, according to the law's own elucidation. I'm an account executive, not a lawyer. Have your own counsel read the ownership clause before you sign.
At Hatypo, the intellectual property belongs to the client in full. Whichever studio you choose, ask for that to be stated in the contract before the project starts.

What happens to your data and confidentiality?
Most design work runs on flows, screens and sample content. Where real data is needed, agree in writing what is shared and who can see it.
Ask for a confidentiality agreement before you share product plans or user data. Hatypo signs NDAs. Once your product launches, typically 3 to 6 months later, we publish it on the Hatypo website as a delivered project, so confirm that arrangement in the contract. Fintech and healthtech buyers should raise data handling on the first call.
How do cross-border payments work?
Bank wires sent across borders in a foreign currency often travel over the Swift network. Wise's help pages say these transfers usually take 1 to 6 working days to arrive, and sometimes longer.
Banks between the sender and the receiver can deduct handling fees on the way, so the amount that arrives can be lower than the amount sent. Wise notes that these fees can come from your own bank, an intermediary or the recipient's bank.
Agree three things when you scope the project: the invoice currency, who covers transfer fees, and how many working days the first payment needs to arrive. That keeps a transfer delay from holding up the start of the work.
At Hatypo, payments usually go through Wise, PayPal, or platforms such as Contra and Dribbble. Confirm which route suits you, because each has its own fees and timing.
What should you ask any offshore design studio before you sign?
Put these 5 questions to every studio on your shortlist, including us. The answers should be specific, written down and easy to compare between studios.
- Can we run a paid test first? Ask what the test covers, how long it takes and what it costs. At Hatypo, it takes 3 to 5 working days and covers mobile app, web app, website and dashboard projects. The cost depends on scope and the number of designs, and hourly charging is also possible.
- When can we meet? Get the project meeting hours in writing and convert them to your time zone. Ours are 9am to 5pm WIB, with deal meetings from 8am to 10pm WIB.
- Who owns the files? Ask for the transfer of rights to be written into the contract. Include how credit and later changes to the work are handled. At Hatypo, the client owns the IP in full.
- How is data handled? Ask what the studio needs from you, who sees it and how confidentiality is covered. Share sample content where you can. Hatypo signs NDAs and publishes launched projects on its website 3 to 6 months after launch.
- How do payments work? Agree the invoice currency, who covers transfer fees and how long the first payment takes to arrive. Settle it before the work starts. At Hatypo, payments usually go through Wise, PayPal, Contra or Dribbble.


What four questions settle the decision?
How many hours of design work will you have each week?
Count planned work over the next 12 months. A full week of work suits an in-house hire. A few days a week suits a subscription. An uneven load of large projects suits an agency.
Who briefs and reviews the work?
Every model needs a person on your side who can say what good looks like. Without that person, an agency can supply a lead of its own. A subscription depends on the quality of your briefs.
Which skills does the work need?
List the skills the work needs, such as research, visual design, motion and front-end handoff, and mark how many one hire could cover. The gaps tell you where an agency or a subscription needs to fill in.
What happens when the work stops?
Replacing an in-house designer costs half to two times annual salary, per Gallup's estimate. An agency project ends at delivery. A subscription pauses or cancels on the provider's terms, and Designjoy lets you pause anytime.
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